Cabot Courtyard and Frisbie Place

Your Guide

Cabot Courtyard and Frisbie Place are two separate but interrelated landscapes in Harvard’s Cabot Science Complex. The Cabot landscape is a place of retreat and communal gathering - a venue for cultivating scientific inquiry as a creative quest outside of the laboratory.

Cabot is also an important connector as it joins with Frisbie Place, the main east-west thoroughfare of this part of the Harvard campus. Although the courtyard and walkway were built as part of the 2002 Bauer and Naito Laboratories projects (the buildings house the Bauer Center for Genomics Research) they also serve Sherman Fairchild Biochemistry and other buildings in the Science Complex.

Aerial View

A short walk from Harvard Yard, Cabot Courtyard and Frisbie Place sit at the heart of the Life Sciences complex. Cabot is easily accessed from Kirkland Street while Frisbie opens to Oxford Street, Divinity Avenue, and the north end of Cabot.

Image: Google Maps Image

Graphic Pathways

Cabot’s unique arrangement of paths and lawns recalls Harvard’s Old Yard, where “desire lines” of pedestrian movement have found their expression over the years in paved walks. Here, the landscape architect anticipated these movements across the courtyard, using pathways of different materials which also make a bold graphic visible from the buildings’ work spaces. A neutral pavement border touches all the building facades, subtly unifying them within the landscape.

Image: Andrea Jones

Landscape Over a Laboratory

Nearly half of Bauer Laboratory’s 61,500 square feet are under Cabot Courtyard, making the landscape a “rooftop garden” built at grade. Building on structure poses tremendous challenges for plants, including a limited amount of soil volume due to weight considerations, the need for complex drainage and irrigation systems to prevent over-saturated soils, and selection of tree species that can thrive in these conditions.

Image: Andrea Jones

Elegant Simplicity

In the central area, a simple plant palette of lawn and trees echoes the look of Harvard’s frugal but elegant landscapes. Five American sweetgum shade trees turn a glorious crimson fall color and are positioned at the south side of the courtyard where there is greater soil volume over the roof. Providing the right soil type and volume ensures that the sweetgum will grow to provide a generous area of dappled shade throughout the day.

Image: Andrea Jones

Mixed-Use Courtyard

As a place of gathering, Cabot Courtyard offers flexible seating options that work for one or many. The free-standing black granite bench is a seat, a couch for stretching out, and a backrest when sitting on the lawn. Tables with umbrellas provide seating both for Bauer’s Cyber Café and everyday casual use. The paths divide the lawn panels into “rooms” that can be temporarily claimed by visitors; in good weather the lawn offers both a shady spot under trees or a place for soaking up the sun.

Image: Andrea Jones

Modern Lines

Landscape architects must consider every aspect of a project. This is especially evident in the clean and precise detailing of Cabot Courtyard, shown here in a series of stone walls, which help to unify modern and traditional building materials and create a sense of coherence within the space.

Image: Missy Harvey

Frisbie Place

Just north of the Cyber Café, Cabot Courtyard joins Frisbie Place, a landscape pedestrian corridor that connects Oxford Street with Divinity Avenue. Frisbie’s wide and straight walk facilitates quick movement while the broadly arcing brick path invites a diversion with a place to sit and watch passers-by.

Image: Andrea Jones

Visual Interest for All Seasons

Multi-stem river and white birches are a surprising but elegant planting combination; their gracefully arching branches, yellow fall color, and peeling cinnamon and white barks enliven the walk in all seasons. These trees sit within a groundcover bed of English ivy, an evergreen vine that offers a bit of green over a long New England winter.